Various tumor related diseases inflict man. Considerable research has been devoted to oncology and antitumor measures. Tumors are common in a variety of mammals and the prevention, control of the growth and regression of tumors in mammals is important to man. The term tumor refers to abnormal masses of new tissue growth which is discordant with the economy of the tissue of origin or of the host's body as a whole.
Tummor inflict mammals and man with a variety of disorders and conditions including various forms of cancer and resultant cancerous cachexia. Cancerous cachexia refers to the symptomatic discomfort that accompanies the infliction of a mammal with a tumor. These symptoms include weakened condition of the inflicted mammal as evidenced by, for example, weight loss. The seriousness of cancer is well known, e.g., cancer is second only to heart and vascular diseases as a cause of death in man.
Viral diseases inflict man, plants, insects, and animals. The prevention and control of viral diseases have important health and economic implications.
Viral diseases contribute to inflictions in humans including common colds, herpes and cancer and the importance of their control is obvious. Also important is control of viral diseases in animals for economic reasons as well as the ability of such animals to become virus reservoirs or carriers which facilitate the spreading of viral diseases to humans. Viral plant diseases have been known to have a disruptive effect on the cultivation of fruit trees, tobacco, and various vegetables. Insect viral diseases are also of interest because of the insects' ability to transfer viral diseases to humans.
Prevention of the growth of fungus and the infections and maladies caused by it to mammals and plants is also of importance to man. The presence of fungus may cause various diseases and infections in man including mycotic disease, e.g., pulmonary candidiasis and pulmonary blastomycosis. Certain yeastlike organisms, e.g., Cryptococcus neoformans, may cause serious infections of the central nervous system. More commonly known fungal infections in humans and mammals include ringworm, which are fungus infections of hair and nail areas, as well as resistant infections of the skin. Many other fungal infections inflict humans and mammals in the areas of skin, mucous membranes, intestinal tract, vaginal area and lungs.
Plants are also attacked by various fungi. Damage caused by fungus infection to agriculture amounts to billions of dollars annually. Various inorganic and organic fungistats and fungicides have been tried but with limited success. It is of course important for the fungistat or fungicide to kill the fungi but not the plant and to leave no toxic residue on the food of the plant. Various methods have been utilized to combat fungus infection in agriculture including foliage fungicide by which method plants are coated with a preventive weather-resistant fungicide. Seed treatment and soil treatment are methods which require fungicides which are safe for seeds and resist degradation by soil and soil microorganisms. Chemotherapeutants are fungicides which permeate the plant to protect new growth or eliminate infections which have already occurred within the plant. Agricultural fungistats and fungicides and their application must also meet very stringent requirements and regulations, which have been promulgated, for example, in the United States.
Considerable research and resources have been devoted to oncology and antitumor measures including chemotherapy; antiviral measures; and combating fungal infections in both mammals and plants. While various antitumor, antiviral or antifungal agents and methods have been developed which aid in inhibiting tumors, viruses and the spread of fungus, respectively, additional methods and chemical agents are needed.
A potential source for antitumor, antiviral, and antifungal compositions is marine plant and animal life and of particular interest are marine sponges. It has now been found that organic compositions derived from extracts of the sponge Theonella sp. possess useful antitumor, antiviral and antifungal activity.
Some compounds of interest have been previously isolated from marine sponge Theonella, sp. In particular sesquiterpenoid compounds have been reported by H. Nakamura, J. Kobayashi, Y. Ohizumi, and Y. Hirata Tetrahedrom Letters, Vol. 25, No. 47, Pp. 5401-5404 (1984). This paper discloses the isolation from the Okinawan sea sponge Theonella cf. swinhuei of "theonellin" compositions of the formulae: ##STR1## No biological activity was reported by Nakamura et al. for theomellin compositions. Also of interest are misadinolide compositions, having antitumor and antiviral properties, described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 051,127 filed on May 18, 1987 by T. Higa, R. Sakai and M. Lui.
Another naturally derived composition of interest is pederin. Pederin is isolated from insects if the Paederus genus. Pederin has the following structure: ##STR2##
Pederin shows antimitotic activity as described in British Patent Specification Nos. 1,078,049 (1967) and 932,875 (1963).